GREENDALE, Ind.  Emergency services were summoned to help an elderly former police officer who reportedly fell and ripped stitches from a recent surgery. But police are investigating his death as a possible suicide, they said Sunday.

Carl Gillis, 81, of Tebbs Avenue, died at 4:26 a.m. Sunday at University Hospital.

He served in law enforcement for 20 years as a patrolman with the Aurora police, a captain with the Lawrenceburg police and as Dearborn County sheriff.

On Saturday, Greendale police said they and emergency medical services responded to a 911 call for a life squad. The report said the man had fallen.

Instead, Mr. Gillis had a self-inflicted gunshot wound to the stomach, police said.

Glenn Menack, of Morrow Woodville Road, was a passenger in a vehicle driven by Harry Estell, 38, of Achterman Road, Morrow.

The men were traveling east on Roachester Cozaddale at 1:30 a.m. when Mr. Estell failed to negotiate a curve seven-tenths of a mile west of Morrow Rossburg Road, troopers said.

The car went off the right side of the road, struck a ditch, a culvert and guardrail before overturning and sliding back across the road, the report said.

Mr. Menack was partly ejected from the vehicle. Neither he nor Mr. Estell was wearing a seat belt, authorities said. Mr. Estell was taken to University Hospital, where his condition was not available.

The crash remains under investigation.

Thanksgiving service at N.Ky. cathedralCOVINGTON  The first regional Ecumenical Thanksgiving Service will be at 7:30 p.m. Tuesday at the Cathedral Basilica of the Assumption, 12th Street and Madison Avenue.

The program's theme will be In Everything Give Thanks and will be a celebration of God's word in prayer, music and song.

All are welcome. Nonperishable food items for the needy will be collected.

Sponsoring organizations are Council of Christian Communions of Greater Cincinnati and Northern Kentucky Interfaith Commission.

Cathedral review sessions changedCOVINGTON  A Tuesdayforum on the proposed preservation, restoration and renewal of the Cathedral Basilica of the Assumption has been canceled.

The Diocese of Covington will provide a lengthier, two-hour ses sion Dec. 14. It will start at 7 p.m. at Howard Hall, 25 E. 11th St., and will give the public a chance to review emerging schematic design options.

Another hearing is set for 7 p.m. on Jan. 17. A hearing originally scheduled for Jan. 18 has been canceled.

The diocese is in a $10 million fund-raising campaign. Officials want $4.7 million of that amount to go to the Cathedral.

The landmark church fashioned after Notre Dame in Paris receives about 70,000 visitors a year.

McDonald's crew robbed by 2 menCOLUMBIA TOWNSHIP  Two armed men robbed employees at the McDonald's at 5416 Ridge Road at 7:31 a.m. Sunday, fleeing in a dark-color vehicle with an undetermined amount of money, the Hamilton County sheriff's office said.

Both men were described as black, in their early 20s. One was 5 feet, 10 inches tall, 180 pounds, and wore a dark ski mask, a gray and brown jacket and black pants.

The second was 5-9, 150 pounds, wearing a dark ski mask and jacket.

Adults, children safe after fire in Avondale
Three adults and four children were able to escape a fire Sunday at an Avondale residence, Cincinnati Fire officials said.

No one was injured in the one-alarm blaze on Ridgeway Avenue at 7:59 a.m. Damage was estimated at $60,000, officials said.

When firefighters arrived, the lower two floors of the three-story brick building were ablaze. The cause of the fire is under investigation. The Red Cross assisted those displaced by the fire.

Another Vine section now goes both ways As of 4 p.m. Sunday, Vine Street became a two-way street from Central Parkway to McMicken Avenue in Over-the-Rhine.
The conversion of the section of Vine from Liberty Street to McMicken Avenue was completed Sunday afternoon. The portion from Liberty to Central Parkway was converted last weekend.

Locals join protest at Army training camp
About 100 Greater Cincinnati residents left for Georgia on Friday night to join a protest to close the U.S. Army School of the Americas (SOA), a combat training school for Latin American militaries.

More than 3,000 protesters, many wearing black robes and white death masks, marched onto Fort Benning on Sunday to protest human-rights abuses they say are committed by graduates.

It's a symbolic act that shows things need to be changed, said Sister Alice Gerdeman, coordinator of the Intercommunity Justice and Peace Center bus, which took 45 people to the demonstration. Xavier University also sent a bus of 45 students.